Month: April 2026

We are happy to share that we presented our research on the “Sleep” Citizen Science Project at three conferences: the NARST Online Conference, the ILANIT Conference and the Annual Conference of the Israeli Center for Citizen Science.

We are grateful for the engaging discussions, the interest in this work, and the opportunity to be part of such meaningful scientific communities.

Ben Simon. H, L., & Tsybulsky, D. Learning about science by doing real science: fostering NOS understanding through citizen science. NARST2026 Online Conference. Seattle, Washington, April 2026. Oral presentation.

Ben Simon, H. & Tsybulsky, D. Engaging students with citizen science: Gateway to new scientific frontiers. ILANIT2026 Conference. Eilat, Israel, February2026. Oral presentation.

Yifrach. L.  & Tsybulsky, D. Sleep project: Investigating sleep from humans to drosophila as a biological model. Annual Conference of the Israeli Center for Citizen Science, The Steinhardt Museum of Natural History, February  2026. Oral presentation.

Excited to share our new publication!

In this study, we explore how epistemic emotions, such as confusion, curiosity, and enjoyment, unfold and function within socio-scientific issue learning through digital curation. Our findings highlight a clear emotional trajectory: from initial uncertainty and tension toward curiosity, engagement, and meaningful knowledge construction.

Importantly, we show that these emotions are not just by-products of learning, but integral to it – serving both as markers of cognitive processes and as mechanisms that drive inquiry, evaluation, and collaborative sensemaking.

Kudos to Remah Haj for this fascinating research, conducted as part of her doctoral work!

Haj, R. & Tsybulsky, D. (2026). From confusion to curiosity: epistemic emotions in socio-scientific issue learning through digital curation. Disciplinary and Interdisciplinary Science Education Research. Special Issue on SSIs. https://doi.org/10.1186/s43031-026-00157-z